Google's AdWords Announcements May 2016

Advertisers will
now have two 30-character headlines instead of the current 25-character
headline and one 80-character line of description copy instead of two
35-character lines.

2.Uncoupling desktop and mobile bidding

Previously we could bid on desktop,
or desktop and mobile, but not mobile on it own. And there was one base bid
level for both with adjustments available for mobile. The change in
bidding is significant in that it accomplishes two things: 1. Untethers desktop
and mobile bids; and 2. Allows us to make mobile the focus of your campaigns,
where relevant.

3. Google
Display Network (GDN)

Google announced responsive ads for
display that automatically resize and adjust to the look and feel of the
content to tap into publishers’ native ad inventory. We provide
headlines, a description, an image and a URL and Google dynamically builds the
ads – taking away the need for multiple ad versions for all the required
dimensions.

4. Better Measurement of In-Store Conversions

AdWords can now help more businesses bridge the gap
between the digital and physical worlds by measuring in-store conversions.
Technically this isn’t “new” (Google says more than 1 billion store visits have
been measured so far in the past two years), but it’s still a pretty big deal.
Soon in-store conversions will become more widely available to more types of
businesses, which is critical considering 90 percent of sales will happen in
stores, as opposed to online. Google simply looks at phone location
history to determine whether the person who searched and clicked on your ad
ended up walking into the store.

5. New Local Search Ads to Appear on Google Maps

Google had unveiled
what it calls the “next generation” of local search ads. These new ads will
appear within Google Maps (on the app as well as both the desktop and mobile
versions of the site), as well as across Google.com. Google noted that location-related
searches account for nearly a third of all mobile searches
and have grown 50 percent faster than overall mobile searches in the
past year.

In the new ads,
brand logos and offers will appear directly on the surface of the map, rather
than just alongside the map. For example, if you were to search on Google Maps
for [electronics store], you’d see the following:

6. Google redesigning the AdWords platform (due for completion by end of
2017)

Google
are completely redesigning its platform. It will
be introducing a small number of advertisers to facets of the
redesign that are built starting today. For example, advertisers running video
campaigns will see video campaign management views, while others running
Shopping campaigns will see that area of the platform.